


Games with the Duchess

by KAL (JadeElite)



Category: Chained Angels, Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-27
Updated: 2016-01-27
Packaged: 2018-05-16 12:36:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5829232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadeElite/pseuds/KAL
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One of the generals of kerci's rebel army is to meet with a duchess from a neighboring kingdom, who's soldiers are feared across the land, in hopes of gaining an alliance that will give them an edge in the coming war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Games with the Duchess

General Kaisen stands, unsure where, when, to step and to speak. She cannot breathe in the heavy corset. Cannot balance in the heavy, ill fitted shoes. The yellow gown looks atrocious against her dark, rough skin, she had insisted that lavender would be a better.

“My, my.” Her host’s lips move behind a lace fan. The Duchess’ dress slides across the floor, heels clicking on tile in an unfailing beat. No feelings could be betrayed by her, a gilded mask covering the top half of her face, with a veil over the eye holes, so she could see out, and nobody can see in. The gems sewn into her dress sparkle unnaturally, for a second, and suddenly with a flick of her free hand the curtains on the windows fall shut, blocking out the pale sunlight. “I thought I was to have tea with the secondary general of Kerci’s rebel ‘army’ today. Not a girl barely off her mother’s apron strings, and certainly not with someone lacking even the most basic of manners. Who does not know she is supposed to bow in the presence of the most important woman in North-Eastern Vuron.” Today she feels like the most important woman in the entire world, she had just finished negotiating the marriage of her daughter to the future King.

“Assumptions lead to downfalls Lady Dupren. Of course you already know that, you would not have overcome the Lord Falonhien in the Battle of Sorien if he had not assumed your troops were stationed in the village.” Kaisen walks once the Duchess had passed her by several feet, following her to the table that was set for their meeting. As she followed her host she looked to the curtains, then the Duchess’ hand, then the gems on her dress, this woman was powerful, she had no doubt. “It was a brilliant tactic, evacuating the town and using it as a decoy, ambushing them when they had the least amount of maneuverability, turning the tables.” She watches as the Duchess waits for her chair to be pulled out, as she sits, servants assist to move the folds of her large dress. The other chair is not moved, Kaisen can see the game, and perhaps she cannot read people as well as the woman who is the army’s true leader, but she knows when she is being insulted. Her back itches, like the stiff parts of feathers rubbing at odd angles against her skin.

“That is true Kaisen.” The name spoken like the Duchess is chewing on dirt. “May I ask where I am wrong so I have the chance to defend myself better than Falonhien could?” She has no doubt this child was simply offended at being called a child, and children tend to do when they are pretending to be fully grown.

“Well Lady Dupren.” Kaisen walks to a wall where extra chairs were lined up, ones far nicer than the plain wooden one left for her to sit in. Lifetimes half remembered pass behind her eyes. When the game master makes the rules in their favor, you are not obliged to follow them. She had learned this very well. “I actually do know that by the conventions of society I should bow when I see you.” She takes one of these nice chairs and carries it to the table, no small feat. Upon setting it down again she feels a slight resistance to it touching the floor, but when it touches down softly she concludes the Duchess had simply not wanted her to make too much noise. She sits, adjusting the folds of her dress so they will not wrinkle, with a finesse that could have made her castle raised friends weep with joy. Kaisen notices the Duchess’s fan shake slightly, and knew why she was here, and not the more skilled negotiator that was General Calbline. 

“I’ve heard little about the rebel’s back-up general, tell me where were you trained? I’ve heard that Northern Kerci’s renowned for their tactician training but have always fallen short in etiquette for the young women.” The Duchess glances at the arm of the serving girl about to pour the tea, a faint glow envelops the child’s arm and her aim is forced towards the tea cup of the General. A reminder to her guest that she is nothing compared to her. “I heard that General Calbline was raised in the Capitol Academy, surrounded by her kind, but also by the royal family, is that true? If so she must have at least a decent level of refinement, despite what she is.” The tea was a deep red-brown stream cascading into the General’s cup. ‘What she is’ is something hated, abused, and enslaved by the people of Kerci.

“There is no need to talk around the word Lady Dupren. Winged, she is winged, but I do not see how what one carries on their back can affect their ability to act like ‘proper’ young woman. Unless you were talking about her being strong with magic, she is that too, but so are you and it has not stopped you from being refined. Yes she was raised in the Capitol Academy, but that wasn’t a really question anyways, everybody knows that. Knows how she skillfully learned key positions, strengths, weaknesses, while raising the army in secret.” The General took the tea cup and held it to her lips but not yet drinking. “As for myself. The Wastes, the Old Lands, they were my trainer. Until last harvest time I had never seen land that was not barren and dead. Although I learned some things from a few dear friends, a knight and his student from, of where were they from. That’s right, Calin! Oh I heard so many stories of Calin.” Calin was, and General Kaisen knew this of course, what the Duchess’ province had been called before she took the place of her ailing husband. Before she waged her small civil wars against the surrounding provinces of Vuron, claiming them for herself. The room is near silent for a full minute as she sips her tea quietly, the wind picks up outside, if not for the thick mauve curtains they would see the gray clouds. “I always found it interesting how the King allows his provinces to fight amongst themselves the way they do. It’s a strange custom, Dukes and Duchess’ fight for more land, sell parts off, and the rank a family holds in the royal circle, is determined by the size and value of land holdings. It is of course why we have come to you Lady Dupren. Vuron has bred vicious warriors and leaders through centuries of this, and your soldiers are of course the best.” Kaisen’s army had already gained national soldiers from the King of Vuron, who was more than eager to help, he had a soft spot for General Calbline’s cause. Still, the personal reserves of the Duchess were exempt from royal appropriation.

“Well if you’re so interested in the subject, then you might like to know how the custom came about.” The Duchess lowers her fan, and takes her tea cup once it has also been filled. A white scar cut vertically across the woman’s rosy lips, starting just to the right of her nose, hooking off to the side once it reached her chin, digging a trench through the pale skin of her jaw, finally curving up in a desperate flourish and ending just below her ear. The mask that covers the top of her face hides scars and an eye left blind by an assassin’s dagger. In Vuron ferocity and refinement are intermixed, no soldier does not know how to dance at a ball, and no noble has never been in a down right dirty fighting brawl. The General leans back and smiles, she indulged in the occasional history lesson, stories of how the world used to be. “When Vuron was still an empire, pushing borders out into the unknown, conquering the smaller kingdoms, they had a problem. The royal family was constantly fighting off knifes in the dark, dukes that wanted to be more, their own relatives trying to get rid of them. And of course land dispute claims were a daily nuisance, telling one man he could not have new land because it had been promised to another. It was utter chaos.” The Duchess drinks her tea, sets the cup down, and folds her hands across her lap. “So the game was begun, allow us to decide who is Duke or Duchess of where, whether it be through war or marriage, so long as we enforced Vuron’s laws, collected Vuron’s taxes, and sent them most of our soldiers when needed, we got to decide. It distracted members of the court from going for the King’s head, and the King had time to focus on expanding the entire empire.” The General leans back on her chair, trying to rub out the itch in the center of her back that she know isn’t going to go away. 

“Oh that reminds me, congratulations on negotiating the marriage of your daughter to the prince, you would not have done so well I suspect if you were not the largest land holding duchess in Vuron. No I suspect they would have married him to Rosuri’s young princess if not for your intervention. It’s a good thing you hold so much sway in the court.” General Kaisen took a pastry from a dish on the table, broke it in half ate it slowly. Between bites she thought aloud in a deliberate manner. “I suspect, that the knives in the dark have not stopped coming for the royal family though, in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if there was one aimed directly at them right now.” She is careful with the food, not losing a single crumb, so many years of having barely anything to eat turned her into a person that doesn’t let a single morsel go to waste. The Duchess watched this, listened, drank her tea, not showing that what this woman had said had rattled her. The arrangement had not been made public yet, she should not know about this, she wondered if the King had told them about the discussions while they were meeting about soldiers, but still it had been only a few hours since the decision had been finalized. “In fact just last week, General Calbline was teaching me about the dynamics of royal succession in Vuron. She taught me that if the immediate royal family were to become deceased, let’s assume tragically, leaving only the Prince, or Princess, they are crowned and is expected to be married and for a child to be born as soon as possible, there always needs to be a direct heir. But if the Prince, or Princess is only a child, say maybe a baby, they of course cannot rule a kingdom, cannot have their own children. So the King, or Queen, their non-royal family spouses’ parent becomes reagent, and rules until the child is old enough to. I found it quite fascinating, and speculated with her about, well about things.” The room is filled with cold silence. Kaisen finishes her pastry.

“All of that is true. All of that is very true.” The Duchess’ smile is as frigid, she had heard that the Generals had become quite a team when it came to uncovering vital information. There was even a rumor they had successfully convinced very high members of courts from various lands to spill their secrets. “People say that General Calbline is quite the seductress of words, she must have taught you many of her tricks?” Kaisen shakes her head, her eyes drift slowly around the room, without her notice, the Duchess had made the signal to have all ears leave, giving them the privacy to play the game unrestricted. 

“Lady Dupren, I am not here to stop you. I have no interest in the business of Vuron. I just thought you might like to know something the Lady Judicia told us. I suppose you heard about her leaving the temple and joining our cause, lending her gifts to us so we might free her people.” Kaisen knew that the Duchess was already aware of this, she simply did not want to waste a move or more telling her where they’re information was coming from. “The oracle, she is a magnificent woman I will say, she has already more than proven our usefulness. But she told us something absolutely outrageous, but I still felt like you had the right to know, give you time to prepare yourself.” The General picked up her tea cup, drank deeply from it, but did not set it down when it was empty. The Duchess did not need to tell her to continue, she had heard rumors of Judicia’s betrayal, but took no stock in them. Yet the General had already proven to know more than she should, so the Duchess decided that she would investigate the rumors, and if they proved to be true, would consider whatever this woman was about to say might be true as well. “She told us, that the Prince will fall in love with a very beautiful girl, and that she too is a powerful seer, but is too ill to make full use of her gifts. With her powers she will discover, and stop a certain plot against the royal family, one that endangers not only the King, the Queen, and the Prince, but your poor daughter as well. This will happen long before the marriage comes to fruition, and unfortunately for you, the greatness of her deeds, and the revelation of her lineage, will allow the Prince to extend a marriage proposal to her with the permission of the King. This of course will destroy the agreement that was made with you.” Kaisen closely examines the teacup, smiles at the intricate patterns painted on its white surface, she had once tried pottery, but with mud as the clay, and animal blood as paint, there was only so much a small child could get their hands on for such a project out in the old lands.

“What does the Lady Judicia say will become of the conspirators? The ones who held the knife in the shadows?” The Duchess’ is unnerved by this woman’s bluntness, by how forthcoming she is with the information. She considers that it is a lie, but she realizes, she sees the game this player plays, she is not a liar. Where she learned to play with people so well is a mystery, to be able to convince people with the truth, even when the truth is incredulous. Nobody gains anything form the Duchess by appeasing her, by saying everything she wants to hear, no, the only way to beat the Duchess is to turn her own knives against her. 

“Discovered, stripped of titles and ranks, possible executed. If I were them” Kaisen pushes her chair back, stands and arches her back, stretching sore muscles of her back. “I would start making allies in other places, because I doubt they would live long if they stayed in Vuron.” She turns her back to the Lady Dupren, and walks towards the door. Dupren sits speechless, watching her leave. To a person untrained in the games of royal court she might have taken the opinion that the General was lying, attempting to gain her soldiers through fear. She knew though, that everything she had spent her life building was about to come crumbling down, because the General had no reason to lie, they don’t need her soldiers that desperately, this entire meeting was, if anything, a warning. Kaisen left without another word, left the Duchess to her thoughts. 

She had only one thought that did not fall in line with the host of worries about her future position in the kingdom. She stood and took a few steps to the chair the General had sat in. She spoke softly to herself, a habit formed by years of sitting alone in a room making plans.“Perhaps the winged are better players than the rest of us. That she came from nowhere and can already play so well. Calbline, you knew exactly what you were doing when you sent that one didn’t you?” She bent over slowly and picked a long black feather off the floor.


End file.
